


Won’t you Stay With Me?

by AfricanSpaceQueen



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Crying Hange, Crying Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), F/M, Hange Zoë & Levi Are Best Friends, Hange is tired, Levi cares about Hange, Post-Return to Shiganshina Arc (Shingeki no Kyojin), Soft Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 21:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28660530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AfricanSpaceQueen/pseuds/AfricanSpaceQueen
Summary: In the days and weeks after the remaining Scouts return from their mission in Shiganshina Hanji struggles with her new position as the commander. Levi is there to help her and offer her comfort.
Relationships: Levi/Hange Zoë
Comments: 1
Kudos: 62





	Won’t you Stay With Me?

The hallways of the Survey Corps headquarters are eerily quiet. The nine remaining members of the Survey Corps occupy the headquarters as though they are ghosts. It doesn’t feel real that they are the only ones to return from Shiganshina. It almost feels disrespectful for them to be the only ones alive. Hanji barely sleeps between writing reports and carrying out the new duties that come with being the new commander of the Survey Corps. The title Commander Hanji feels wrong, like eating spoiled goods. 

She sits in her dimly lit office furiously writing her reports on the events that happened in Shiganshina. Hanji doesn’t even remember when she last ate or bathed. There isn’t even time to think about things like that, heck she rarely sleeps now. As she reads over what she’s written she feels as though someone is staring at her. Looking up she sees Levi standing in the doorway dressed in simple civilian clothes. He doesn’t say anything, walking into her office and closing the door behind him. She’s so focused on her tasks that she jumps when Levi places his hand on her shoulder.

“Hanji when was the last time you ate?” Levi asks calmly. Hanji doesn’t reply, choosing to just grunt in response, returning to her work. Her pen is taken out of her hand and she turns around to glare at Levi. He has an impassive look on his face but she can see a slight frown forming. 

“Hanji please,” he pleads softly. Levi isn’t good with words, he’s never been. He tries to be comforting as best as he can. He turns Hanji around and looks at her. She’s wearing her glasses and there are bandages around her left eye, and he can see that her eye bags are getting worse. She looks exhausted. This hasn’t been easy for her, he thinks to himself. None of this has been easy for any of them. He’s still tormenting himself over his decision to choose Armin over Erwin and he knows that he’ll soon have to answer for that in front of the commander in chief. 

“Hanji just let me take care of you...please,” he tells her, rubbing her cheek with his thumb. Hanji leans into his touch and even though his palms are rough the touch is so soft and lovely. She closes her remaining good eye and sighs, giving a small smile, the first since they came back from Shiganshina.

“Okay,” she says softly.

Levi runs a bath for Hanji and grabs some of his best soaps and fills the tub with them. He takes her glasses off for her, undresses her, folding her clothes and setting them aside for him to wash later on. Hanji has no qualms about Levi seeing her naked, they’ve slept with each other before. Levi unties her messy hair letting it fall over her shoulder, and gently guides Hanji over to the tub, helping her get in. Under normal circumstances Hanji would have put up a fight about being bathed. Under extreme circumstances Levi would have to knock Hanji out to get her to bathe, but now she’s not putting up a fight. She’s so tired, stressed and confused that putting up a fight means nothing, and Levi is trying to be nice and it wouldn’t be fair to deny him this opportunity to care for her.

Before Levi grabs the wash cloth he reaches for Hanji’s bandages but stops, his hand a mere inch away from her bandaged eye. Hanji looks at him apprehensively and turns her head away from him.

“Hanji when was the last time you changed your bandage?” he asks her softly.

“I don’t know,” she replies softly.

“Will you let me change them for you?” he asks, grabbing her chin and turning her head so that she would look at him. Hanji doesn’t say anything but nods her head. He unfolds the bandage and looks at her damaged closed eye that still has some blood around it, and cleans it for her. Her injured eye still hurts her but Levi’s touches are soft and she savors it.

They don’t say much as Levi washes her with the washcloth, or scrubs her hair with the scented shampoo. The bathroom is silent except for the occasional sounds of the water sloshing around. Hanji can’t stop thinking about the events from Shiganshina. The explosion, Moblit pushing her out of the way, seeing Armin’s burnt body, Erwin’s frail body, Levi’s painfully sad face when she told him Erwin had passed. She knew that the fight to reclaim Wall Maria wouldn’t be easy but she never imagined that it would be a bloodbath. 

As Levi washes Hanji’s hair he can’t help but feel guilty about Hanji. She’s the new commander and it’s his fault that she has to carry this burden around with her. If only he had given the injection to Erwin, if only he didn’t hesitate, if only he made a different decision, things would have been different.

When he goes to grab a towel and turns to Hanji he sees that there are unshed tears forming in her one good eye. Levi’s heart aches looking at her. The normally excited and bubbly woman he knew before was a scared, tired and anxious woman unsure of her future, and worried if they were prepared for what was to come. Levi knelt down next to her and as he was about to put his hand on her shoulder Hanj began to let out cries and Levi was stunned into silence. For the first time in his life Captain Levi didn’t know what to do. He imagined that nothing he said would help. It’s my fault she’s like this, he thinks to himself. 

“I want to hate you so badly,” she cries out. “But I can’t even if I want to. I think about how I wouldn’t have to be in this situation if you had chosen him instead of Armin. I think about how easy my life would be if you had made a different decision.” At this point Hanji is heaving and Levi can’t do anything but just kneel beside the tub looking at her helplessly. 

“You have every right to hate me Hanji. It’s my fault, if I had chosen to make a different decision you wouldn’t have to carry this heavy burden with you,” he says softly. He can’t bring himself to look at her, instead looking at the water in the tub. “I’ve wondered how things would look like if I had chosen him. I hate how I’ve done this to you Hanji and I’m so sorry.” Levi can feel tears forming in his eyes and even if Hanji doesn’t want to be touched by him he grabs her wet hand and holds it, still not looking at her.

“I want you to hate me. It’s deserved, I deserve to be hated. But even if you hate me for the rest of your days I’ll always love and care about you,” he chokes out. The tears in his eyes are falling, slowly going down his face. “I don’t know what I can do to change things but I’ll be at your side through this no matter what happens.” 

He feels a wet hand touch his cheek and he looks at Hanji through his clouded and tearful eyes to see Hanji wearing a sad smile on her face. She moves closer to him and places a kiss on his forehead and he closes his eyes at the soft contact, letting his tears continue to fall.

“I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side,” she says softly. Levi gives her a small smile and squeezes the hand he’s still been holding. 

After drying her off he wraps her damaged eye with a fresh set of clean bandages and brushes out her brown hair. Hanji looks nice with her hair down, he thinks to himself. She has really nice hair and he wishes she would do a better job of taking care of it, but he’ll gladly help her with that as many times as she needs him to. He brings her some food and when she manages to get some of it on the side of her mouth he scoffs slightly and cleans the food off of her face. 

“Stay with me,” she says abruptly after finishing her meal. It surprises Levi for a moment and before he can even respond she grabs his arm. “Please don’t leave me.” Levi looks at her for a moment before giving her a soft look and placing a kiss on her bandaged eye. 

“Didn’t you remember what I said to you earlier?” he asks. “I’ll be at your side no matter what happens.” 

That night Hanji sleeps soundly for the first time in many days and Levi stares at her sleeping face running his hands through her soft hair. When morning comes Levi wakes up and finds Hanji snuggled up to his chest. He smiles at her and moves himself so that they are both at the same height. He presses a soft kiss to her bandaged eye and holds her hand. She looks so peaceful like this. He wishes he could do this for her every single day and just put an end to all of their issues. Levi knows that he can’t erase all the problems in the world. The world they live in is unnecessarily cruel but so long as he’s still alive he’ll protect Hanji to the very end.

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve always felt this aspect of their return from Shiganshina has never really been discussed. I imagine that Levi feels guilty about not choosing Erwin and Hanji likely struggles with her new position as commander and probably was upset with Levi. I tried my best to show that dynamic in this short fic. This was also somewhat inspired by my other LeviHan fic titled “Stay with Me.” I hope you enjoyed reading this fic!


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